[40]. [Probably written by the Rt. Hon. John Courtnay.]
[41]. Line 10.—[One of the distinguishing features of the “Anti-Jacobin” was their articles devoted to an exposure of the “Lies, Misrepresentations, and Mistakes” of the Opposition Press.—Ed.]
[42]. Line 23.—[George Hammond, at this time Canning’s colleague as Under-Secretary of State; the latter being succeeded by John Hookham Frere.—Ed.]
[43]. Line 30.—[Lord Morpeth, son of the (fifth) Earl of Carlisle who was satirized by Byron in “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”.—Ed.]
[44]. Line 32.—[George Granville Leveson Gower, eldest son of the first Marquis of Stafford, born in 1758, became second Marquis in 1803, and created Duke of Sutherland in 1833. He was one of Canning’s intimate college companions.—Ed.]
[45]. Line 41.—[James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury, one of the most distinguished of English diplomatists. His “Diaries and Correspondence,” published by his grandson, the third Earl, throw much light on the transactions of the eventful period to which they refer.—Ed.]
[46]. Line 42.—[George Ellis, the accomplished editor of the “Specimens of the Early English Poets, and of Early English Metrical Romances,” &c. In early life he contributed to the Rolliad, being the author of Nos. 1 and 2, in Part I., and Nos. 1 and 2, in Part II. Of the Political Eclogues he wrote the one entitled “Charles Jenkinson”. In the Probationary Odes, he wrote No. II. “Ode on the New Year, by Lord Mulgrave,” and No. XX. “Irregular Ode for the King’s Birth Day, by Sir G. Howard”. Afterwards, however, he became much attached to Pitt, and acted as Secretary to Lord Malmesbury during his unsuccessful negotiations with the French for peace, at Lisle, 1797. Horace Walpole thus alludes to him, in a letter of 24th June, 1783: “English people are in fashion at Versailles. A Mr. Ellis, who wrote some pretty verses at Bath two or three years ago, is a favourite there.” Sir Walter Scott addressed to him Canto V. of “Marmion”. He died in 1815, aged 70.—Ed.]
[47]. Line 71.—[The Rt. Hon. Henry Dundas (afterwards created Viscount Melville), in the Commons, and Lord Grenville in the Lords, were Pitt’s most efficient supporters.—Ed.]
[48]. Line 16.—[Brookes’s Club was the grand rendezvous of the Whigs.—Ed.]
[49]. Line 17.—[Jas. Hare was M.P. for Knaresborough, and one of the most brilliant wits of the Whig Party. At Eton his verses were hung up as specimens of excellence. Great expectations were raised as to his eloquence in the House of Commons. But his timidity was so great that he broke down in his first speech, and this failure, joined with delicate health, prevented a second attempt. Horace Walpole speaks of his “brilliancy and fire,” and of his own inferiority to him. His bons mots were innumerable. He died in 1804. The following is Lord Ossory’s opinion of the social talents of some of the best talkers of his day:—“Horace Walpole was an agreeable, lively man, very affected, always aiming at wit, in which he fell very short of his old friend, George Selwyn, who possessed it in the most genuine but indescribable degree. Hare’s conversation abounded with wit, and perhaps of a more lively kind; so did Burke’s, though with much alloy of bad taste; but, upon the whole, my brother the General [Fitzpatrick] was the most agreeable man in society of any of them.”—MS., R. Vernon Smith.—Ed.]